Sherry Camhy’s article on becoming an artist focuses on getting your work exhibited. The article addresses art in general, but the advice more than applies to fabric art.

Recent Against The Sky exhibit at Summit ArtSpace, Akron, Ohio

Sue Bleiweiss wrote about five qualities of successful artists. When I read the following I felt she was inside my head: “One of the most useless black holes in the art making process is to compare yourself or spend time evaluating your work and what you do in relation to someone else.”

One oft repeated advice is to steal learn from the best. And that brings me to art commentary and history. It seems odd to hear people talk about art with no visuals, but that hasn’t stopped several art podcasts from springing into life. Here’s a list to get you started. Production values vary, and some presenters sound as if their day jobs are testing pot infused cookies for the Colorado market.

Speaking of art history, if you want an enhanced Vermeer collection experience, check out Google’s Art Camera. “Pocket Gallery, a brand new feature on the Google Arts & Culture app, uses augmented reality, so you can pull out your phone and step into a virtual exhibition space to see all 36 [of Vermeer’s paintings, including . . . the famous “Girl with a Pearl Earring”] hung life size and perfectly lit. As you step closer, you’ll see each painting in stunning detail and can learn more about each piece.”

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8 responses to “Artistic Endeavors – Advice”

I got started reading the Jerry Saltz lessons and then got sidetracked. I’m still not done but wanted to thank you for posting the link. So far Lesson 15 is the one that catches me most: “In the past 100 years or so, art has been reduced to being mainly something we look at in clean, white, well-lit art galleries and museums. Art has been limited this way, made a passive thing: another tourist attraction to see, take a picture in front of, and move on from.

But for almost its entire history, art has been a verb, something that does things to or for you, that makes things happen. Holy relics in churches all over the world are said to heal. Art has been carried into war; made to protect us, curse a neighbor, kill someone; been an aid in getting pregnant or preventing pregnancy. There are huge, beautiful, multicolored, intricately structured Navajo sand paintings used in ceremonies to ask the gods for assistance. The eyes painted on Egyptian sarcophagi are not there for us to see; they are there so the interred person can watch. The paintings inside the tombs were meant to be seen only by beings in the afterlife.”

Art is FOR something. It has a purpose. That’s worth remembering. Thanks again.

I don’t have a smart phone, but I looked at the Google Vermeer site just on my desktop computer, and I finally figured out that as you scroll down to read the notes, the screen zooms to different details. So it is pretty cool on a desktop too. I have read a lot about Vermeer but I learned some new things here!